For the longest of time, the skin care industry has been riddled with false claims, temporary solutions, and a marketing strategy that takes advantage of human insecurities.
Danielle Gronich was no stranger to this toxic world of skincare. In the hopes of finding a viable solution for her acne problems, Danielle faced an emotional turmoil that not only made her skin worse but impacted her overall mental well-being.
Similar to Danielle, women (and men) across a diverse age group have been unable to find the requisite answers, let alone solutions to their persistent skin problems.
However, Danielle Gronich chose to take ownership of her situation, build her knowledge base, and empower others with solutions that actually work!
Over the years, this empowering woman has built a reputation by helping thousands of people with her result-driven personalized approach to skincare. This reputation has gone on to earn her the title of being The Acne Guru™.
Today, Danielle, along with her co-founder Kayleigh Christina, are spearheading a revolutionary skincare brand – CLEARSTEM – that is empowering an entire community to achieve skin confidence.
At the age of 16, Danielle’s skin began to flare up. However, being active in sports and exercise, she had a good amount of sweating. Moreover, she shied away from wearing any kind of makeup.
But things took a sharp turn for her skin as she went off to college. “I stopped playing sports, had to eat crappy dorm food, started partying, and was on a birth control that was known for causing acne (the Nuva Ring),” she recalls.
At that time, Danielle had almost no knowledge when it came to health or skincare. “I did what most people do and just covered it up with makeup and bought a bunch of vitamins thinking that would help.”
Unfortunately, things only got worse, and the acne began spreading to her chest and back areas. Even worse, none of her dermatologists were able to explain the reasoning behind this and kept rotating birth controls and putting her on antibiotics.
This cycle continued for years, and Danielle ended up having to do Accutane 3 separate times in her 20s. She remembers, “The Accutane was very hard to go through and it only worked for a few months at a time, then it would come right back.”
Unable to find a solution, affected her entire sense of self-worth, which subsequently impacted her confidence and relationships. Her mental well-being was shattered, to the point that she had to take antidepressants.
Being a student in biology, immunology, and genetics, it was further infuriating for Danielle to not have the correct diagnosis and explanations behind her acne triggers.
It was this toxic cycle of constant medication and inability to get to the root cause of her problems that deterred her from moving forward with medical school.
However, after a decade long struggle with acne, Danielle decided to feed her curiosity and re-enter the biology circuit. This was her first, among many, steps in closing the gap in the acne space, left by outdated pharmaceutical methods.
Soon, she earned her license as a clinical esthetician and acne specialist. In 2014, after studying under multiple industry experts and partnering with bloodwork specialists, Danielle opened The San Diego Acne Clinic. Through her holistic approach, she went on to help thousands of people, impacting their lives in more than one way.
Her approach was rooted in compassion and understanding, recognizing that the impact of acne extended far beyond physical appearances. By addressing the psychological, emotional, and social implications of this common skin condition, Danielle aimed to heal not just the skin but also the wounded spirits of those who had long suffered in silence.
Among the many people that Danielle had a profound impact upon was Kayleigh Christina.
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Similar to Danielle Gronich, Kayleigh faced numerous issues related to skin, but was unable to figure out a probable solution. With Danielle and The San Diego Acne Clinic, Kayleigh was finally able to clear her acne without having to sacrifice her health with harsh chemical intakes and treatments.
Through their sessions, Danielle and Kayleigh discovered a mutual passion for helping other acne sufferers and empowering them with skin confidence. Together, they went on to form CLEARSTEM Skincare, a nontoxic, anti-aging and anti-acne skincare line.
The CLEARSTEM Skincare line is formulated such that every product treats multiple skin concerns at once with remarkable skin improvements seen in very little time.
Since starting the company in 2017, CLEARSTEM has become a multimillion-dollar business with a loyal customer base that truly believes in the product.
According to Danielle, she always envisioned the CLEARSTEM brand to be successful and eventually become a household name. “We ARE our target customer; we are one with them.”
Owing to their high customer success rate, Danielle and Kayleigh were able to build a community that grows along with the brand. She mentions, “We love building our community! We host free masterclasses (the last one had over 1,000 signups!). We are constantly doing Instagram lives and thoughtful collaborations with other healthy brands that our customers would love.”
She continues, “Because education is our first “product” we have such a different level of connection and trust within our community, and we are obsessed with giving them what they need that they aren’t able to find elsewhere.”
An example of this is the acne-focused telehealth wing that the company is launching in July! It will provide the correct lab work and specialists to identify the root causes of acne that are overlooked in traditional western medicine (like mold, digestive issues, gut dysbiosis, and more).
She passionately asserts, “Our goal is for people to be curious about the inner workings of their unique bodies and to learn exactly what they need instead of using band-aid approaches.”
This genuine care for the well-being of their community and access to knowledgeable customer service is how CLEARSTEM has built its brand to where it stands today.
Danielle notes that in recent years there has been a shifting trend among brands when it comes to introducing non-toxic, sustainable products. She attributes this to people having the requisite access to learning.
She explains, “We know that toxins disrupt our immune system and impact our hormones, so focusing on what we can control has become paramount. We cannot control the air quality in our city, but we can control what we eat and put on our skin, so the focus has naturally landed there. I’m glad people can understand these things and make the choices that feel right for them.”
Similarly, for Danielle, it was this hunger to make informed decisions that steered her towards a wealth of knowledge concerning skin care and beyond.
She looks back at her journey with immense gratitude. She says, “I’m grateful I had the science-brain to be able to crack the code and the risk-tolerance to start a company. This rollercoaster came with a ton of personal sacrifice but the mission to help people avoid suffering is what motivates me every day.”
For Danielle Gronich, the ability to impact the lives of people with her knowledge, makes her grateful for the decisions she has taken to come this far.
Moving forward, Danielle is excited about the upcoming telehealth side of her company. “Being able to guide people on which labs to run and which hormone tests to pay attention to (and pairing them with professionals who can make sense of it) is the thing we have been missing this whole time.”
She adds, “The trends and data we see emerge will allow us to help others more easily so the positive snowball effect will be huge.”
With compassion as her compass, Danielle will continue to foster an environment where authenticity thrives, insecurities dissipate, and self-growth is cultivated.
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